We hadn't traveled outside of the state since the twins were born, so we decided to jump at the chance. Long story short, we decided to accept an invitation to visit my cousin's family in Texas. I'd never been, and my wife had only ever gone as part of a college swimming trip. Plus, I figured South was a pretty good direction to travel in late Autumn, so we booked a flight to Fort Worth.
Over the course of the Reaper Bones II kickstarter I'd noticed the company's headquarters was in Denton, Texas. Lo & behold, it was a 30 minute drive from my cousin's house.
My wife thought I was kidding when I said we had to take a tour.
The exterior of the shop looks more like a warehouse than a game store, (Probably because that's what it is) but had my wife not pointed out a few signs noting that this was the place I probably would have passed it by.
Photo taken from the Wargames and Railroads blog |
(There weren't any Games Workshop inventory, but I certainly can't fault them for that.)
My wife, myself, and our 10 month old twins were all super excited to get to see where miniature magic happens*, so we asked if anyone was available to give us a tour of the factory. Fortunately one of their services guys, Matt, was kind enough to show us around. So with that we were escorted into the warehouse itself. (*enthusiasm on the part of any family members is greatly exaggerated)
The warehouse itself was all business.
These suits of armor came from fan who'd a local armorer. They're fully functional, and apparently have been worn on a few occasions |
Kargir Tundra Beast Rider from Warlord. If I remember correctly Matt said each wheel is good for about 20 "spins" so this wheel could make upwards of 100 minis before being replaced. Smaller casts that don't have a lot of width (like weapons sprues) can go for much much longer since they don't cause as much wear & tear when they're pulled from the rubber.
They had row after row of these wheels in the warehouse with their individual codes written on the side to identify what they were
That's a lot of potential minis right there. |
And here's a lot of actual minis |
More here:
Part 2: Casting & Paint
Part 3: Minis galore
Welcome back. Thanks for the behind the scenes look!
ReplyDeleteThanks, it has been a while since my last post. Who knew a full time job, a wife, infant twins, and taking college classes would take so much time away from my hobbies?
Delete~Muninn
I was just looking at your first shot of the facility. Its not possible to get that view anymore, that's where the expansion of the building was added. Did someone else take that picture?
ReplyDeleteYes, I'd neglected to take an actual picture of the exterior of the shop, so that picture came from Goblinminimart.com.
DeleteIt looks like it was shot a few years ago, but it was the only image I could find of the exterior.
Here is my blog and the ReaperCon thread: http://www.wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2013/04/reapercon-2013-thursday-day-1.html
DeleteUse whatever shots of the outside that you want!
I'll do just that, thanks.
DeleteGreat writing and layout. It's funny I never thought that one day I would step foot in REAPER headquarters--but in 2013 right before Thanksgiving while visiting my sister in TX I went on a tour. I wanted to make a page like you have set up but with over 1k pictures I still haven't got around to it. In closing, thank you so much for posting/creating this.
ReplyDeleteWhat day were you there? My trip happened the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. You had to have taken a lot more pictures than I did if you walked out with over 1k.
Delete